This invention relates generally to a telephone subset and more particularly to a data/facsimile telephone subset which employs a high resolution electrophoretic display.
In the present technology there are many telephones or subsets which are available, which phones are associated with various display devices. Many telephones incorporate LCD displays which can, for example, display the time of day, the date, as well as the telephone number which is dialed. Certain of these displays will also give an indication of how long the conversation lasts by providing a timing means which is also viewable on the display. Such telephones or subsets, which are available from many sources, are widely employed in present day use and essentially the display normally consists of a line of data such as, for example, the displays can display a telephone number as a single telephone number or may display a date and time of day. There are other telephone subsets which are available at airports, motels and so on and which have a more complete display as, for example, a CRT display or a gas discharge display.
These telephones can be employed for many different purposes and provide a consumer or a caller with visual data allowing him to coact with the telephone subset or with the telephone company through the data displayed. Hence, it is apparent that the prior art is replete with telephone subsets of various sorts which include various displays.
Recently, the assignee herein, namely, Copytele of Huntington Station, has developed and demonstrated a high resolution electrophoretic display which display is extremely thin and has the capability of providing a large number of lines to provide excellent resolution. For an example of such a display, reference is made to U.S. Pat. No. 4,655,897 which issued on Apr. 7, 1987 to Frank J. DiSanto and Denis A. Krusos and entitled "Electrophoretic Display Panels and Associated Methods". The patent discloses an electrophoretic display apparatus which includes a planar transparent member having disposed on a surface a plurality of vertical conductive lines to form a grid of lines in the Y direction. On top of the grid of vertical lines there is disposed a plurality of horizontal lines which are positioned above the vertical lines and insulated therefrom by a thin insulating layer at each of the intersection points. Spaced above the horizontal and vertical line pattern is a conductive plate. The space between the conductive plate and the X and Y line patterns is filled in with an electrophoretic dispersion containing chargeable pigment particles. When a voltage is impressed between the X and Y lines pigment particles, which are located in wells or depressions between the X and Y pattern, are caused to migrate towards the conductive plate and are deposited upon the conductive plate in accordance with the bias applied to the X and Y line conductors. There is described various electrophoretic dispersions which are suitable for operating with the display, as well as techniques for fabricating the display. In this manner such displays can be fabricated to contain large effective display surfaces while being relatively thin and which are capable of high resolution at very low power.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a unique telephone subset which incorporates, on a major surface thereof, an electrophoretic display as the type described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,655,897.
It is a further object to provide an improved data telephone subset which can be employed for various purposes due to the high resolution electrophoretic display associated therewith.